Give a little, already

A good compromise could get Rose back into baseball

The fans, it seems, forgave Pete Rose a long time ago. The question now is this: Can baseball?

Rose and Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig met in Milwaukee on Nov. 25 -- it's official: stranger things have not happened -- and purportedly discussed what it would take to lift the lifetime ban that baseball laid on Rose more than 13 years ago.

The details of the meeting in Milwaukee, and others between baseball officials and Rose representatives, are strictly hush-hush. But several reports suggest that an end to the ban could come before the end of the year. That would clear the way for Rose to be put on the Hall of Fame ballot, where an almost certain election to the Hall awaits.

Before that can happen, though, the two sides will have to bang out a bear of a compromise. Baseball has steadfastly insisted that Rose admit to his problems, specifically a gambling addiction that many in the game believe led him to bet on baseball games. Rose has just as steadfastly refused to admit to any such problem. He has always denied he bet on baseball, though he says he did place illegal bets on other sports with bookmakers.

Pete Rose acknowledges the crowd during the Memorable Moments ceremony prior to Game 4 of the World Series. AP

Middle ground, anyone?

It's always easy to grab for the simple in this seemingly never-ending saga and just run with it. The fans want Rose reinstated. The game is for the fans. So reinstate him, already.

In fact, the push to get Rose back into baseball -- the ban prohibits him from being employed by any team or from being in any area of a ballpark not accessible to fans -- has a load of backers.

Cincinnati mayor Charlie Luken wrote to Selig on Nov. 13 imploring the commissioner to reinstate Rose, who grew up on Cincinnati's working west side, was an integral part of Cincinnati's Big Red Machine in the mid-1970s and was manager of the team in the mid to late '80s.

Two weeks later Luken talked with Bob DuPuy, Major League Baseball's president and chief operating officer.

"He was open, receptive," Luken said Tuesday. "He understood my point of view and asked for some more time to work on it.

"He didn’t tell me to go pound salt. I thought that was a good thing."

Luken represents thousands of Cincinnati baseball fans overwhelmingly behind baseball's all-time hits leader, and they are not alone. Thousands of fans in Atlanta gave Rose a raucous ovation as the All-Century team was announced during the 1999 World Series -- the cheers were louder, even, than hometown hero Hank Aaron got -- and millions more reacted angrily after NBC-TV's Jim Gray grilled Rose in front of a national audience.

Then, during ceremonies commemorating some of baseball's greatest moments before Game 4 of the 2002 Series in San Francisco, Rose again drew the loudest cheers, more than baseball ironman Cal Ripken Jr. or hometown slugger Barry Bonds.

Fan polls have consistently shown that a majority of fans favor Rose's reinstatement.

But nothing in this mess ever has been easy. For all his millions of supporters, Rose has some powerful enemies who believe admitting him back into the game would simply be wrong. Selig has so far held the fort built by former commissioner Fay Vincent and, before him, the late commissioner Bart Giamatti. It was Giamatti who banned Rose on Aug. 23, 1989, after an exhaustive investigation by special prosecutor John Dowd.

All of those men, and many others, believe that Rose not only bet on baseball games as manager of the Reds in the late '80s, but that he also bet on Reds games.

The biggest problem in reinstating Rose is that those charges can't be dismissed, even by the passage of time. Betting on a game in which you're involved rips at the credibility of the game and the trust of the fans. Someone involved in it should suffer the stiffest of penalties.

Still, this has gone on long enough. The time has come for a compromise.

Rose needs to come clean. If he won't admit he bet on baseball -- and a compromise may take nothing less than that -- then he has to at least admit that his gambling problems put the Reds, and all of baseball, in a compromising position. Even that may not be enough.

Baseball needs to allow Rose a graceful way out. Get the lawyers together, work the words, do whatever it takes. Thirteen years away from the game he loves -- and the game to which he gave so much -- is a painfully high price to pay.

Leave him a little of his famously stubborn pride. And let him off the hook.

"This is not about guilt or innocence," Luken said. "The point is, it's time to turn a page."

Next season, a beautiful new taxpayer-supported stadium will open on the banks of the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati. The Great American Ballpark marks a new era for the game's oldest team.

It would be fitting if it began a new era for Pete Rose, too.

John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com.

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